Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

Findings- For television viewers the modified version of SBBE shall be applicable as the model in the present formdoes not capture all the brand association dimensions. Non-player personnel, organizational commitment,organizational attributes, and social interaction were found non-significant among television viewers. Brandassociations dimension was strongly predicted by team rivalry and team success. Interestingly, the unity and coordinationbetween the players of the team and the determination and passion of the players for winning the matchesfor their teams can be suggested for predicting the reliability of the team. The past performance of the team andprevious records of the team also helps in building brand-equity in context of television viewers.Research limitations- Data was collected from respondents interested in professional sport only and the researchexamined one segment of the sport consumer base. Another limitation is from geographical point of view asrespondents were from a particular state and no team from that state was playing in the Indian Premier League. Thiscan have some serious impacts on the brand awareness dimensions.Originality/Value- This is the first study in the sports marketing literature to validate the SBBE model in context oftelevision viewers. All the models developed earlier focused only on full-season ticket holders or on those whowatch sports in stadiums but none of the model focus on television viewers.Keywords: Brand Equity, Branding, Cricket, Fan(s), Spectator-based brand equity, IPL, Teams, Team Branding,Television viewers, Sports Marketing.Article type: Research paperSpectator-Based Brand Equity and Indian Premier League: An Empirical Assessment in Spectator Sports inEmerging EconomiesIntroductionSports occupy an increasingly important place in the economic and social sphere. Sport equivalent to religion forsome, is not only about game, but also contributes significantly to the economies of the countries. From an economicperspective, sports accounts for a significant part of the entertainment and service industries (King, 2004). Sportingevents are highly popular among the consumers as they offer the consumers with an emotional value. Modernconsumers are spending large amount of money and time on attending the sporting events like Olympics, FIFA, ICC,Wimbledon, Formula 1, NBA, and Indian Premier League. These events touch people‟s emotions, their lives; anddeliver a massive, highly-engaged, targeted audience for a brand. Both marketing through sports and marketing ofsports is increasing across the world leading to emergence of new field of study i.e. ―Sports Marketing‖.The most popular sport played in India is cricket despite the fact that it is not the national game of India. Indiancricket has a rich history and has produced a number of world class cricketers. Managed by the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI), there are various domestic tournaments like Deodhar Trophy, Irani Trophy, Duleep HazareTrophy, Corporate Trophy, Ranji Trophy etc. None of the above mentioned tournaments were able to catch theattention of Indian people and corporate houses. It was Indian Premier League (IPL), introduced in 2008, whichcaught the attention of the people and corporate houses even before its launch. The interesting features of IPL suchas 20-20 format, involvement of celebrity team owners (Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty), auctioning ofcricketers, multiple celebrity cricketers within a single team and cheerleaders resulted in a greater acknowledgementof IPL by the people.Emergence of IPL resulted in the commercialization of cricket and marketers viewed IPL as an important platform tobuild their brands. DLF Group, India‟s biggest property developer, paid US $50 million to be the title sponsor of thetournament for 3 years from 2008 to 2010. In addition to brand building through sponsorships, some corporate housecame forward for buying the teams resulting in creation of team brands. Sports teams always act as a bridge betweenthe spectators and the sports and are connected to the heart of the people.Commercialization of sports and progressive service selling by the teams has become an antecedent to bringprofessionalism in the sport industry.Today sports and respective teams compete with other leisure offerings, and therefore managing good relationshipswith their fans and other stakeholder groups such as the corporate sponsors (Bauer, Sauer, and Schmitt, 2005)becomes critical. In modern highly competitive sporting era, every team management is interested in building itsteam as a strong and global brand and win fan loyalty. It has been observed that higher loyalty of fans ensure theirinvolvement in the teams activities and leading to economic success of the team. In a survey done by Gallup